Microsoft, like Google, asks secret court if it can publish data sharing total

Redmond wants to tell the public how many times the Feds demanded data under FISA.

In a new legal filing made public on Wednesday, Microsoft submitted a motion (PDF) to the notoriously secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) saying that the company “continues to seek—to correct the misimpression, furthered by such inaccurate media reporting, that it provides the United States Government with direct access to its servers and network infrastructure and, thereby, indiscriminately discloses Microsoft users’ information to the Government.”

The filing was submitted on June 19, 2013, just one day after Google’s similar motion. Like Google, Microsoft said it “seeks to report aggregate information about [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] orders and [FISA Amendments Act] directives separately from all other local, state, and federal law enforcement demands.”

Tech companies are presumably attempting to get FISC to allow them to release this information so that they can show there isn’t a hand-in-glove relationship between these corporations and the federal government.

I think the onus is on the government to tell us what the nature of these collections are [sic] and also on the companies. They want to be able to publish at least a broad range of figures of the number of accounts that have been affected by FISA. So that would give us some idea. If we get a figure from Google that says the range is between zero and a million, that’s going to give us an idea that this is really broad. If Google comes back and says the number of accounts affected are [sic] between zero and a hundred, then I think we can kind of rest easy.

16 Reader Comments

Since Microsoft published exact numbers for local state and federal *disclosable* orders before this in their transparency report, is it possible to figure out an approximate range of non-disclosable orders from the combined numbers they released?

You'd have to assume that court order numbers stayed relatively stable (or grew by some amount based on previous reports), and you probably couldn't figure out FISA vs a NSL (since the previous NSL range was so large), but it seems like you could guess their combined range.

I never thought I would be one of THOSE people... but if the numbers come back near zero then it just means there's some other mechanism or process in place, or a SECRET Secret Court. Or "no you can't have our data <whisper> yeah, the fiber's under that manhole cover right there, don't tell me anymore I don't want to know".

At this point, why would the public believe any numbers they release? First the spying wasn't happening, then it was only happening to non US citizens, then it was sometimes happening to US citizens accidentally, now it happens to both citizens and non citizens but it's carefully monitored. But this time they're being completely honest. Pinky swear.

I never thought I would be one of THOSE people... but if the numbers come back near zero then it just means there's some other mechanism or process in place, or a SECRET Secret Court. Or "no you can't have our data <whisper> yeah, the fiber's under that manhole cover right there, don't tell me anymore I don't want to know".

Surely those in positions where "all they do is secret" don't limit themselves to what is 'secretly legal.'Why would they? It's human nature to stretch boundaries. Exactly how far does one have to travel from secretly legal to stray into 'secretly illegal' territory anyway?IMO it's all clearly unconstitutional anyway(patriot act notwithstanding.)

It's funny considering that first thing that MS did once they got skype was to enable spying on anything going on there. We already know that they monitor all text msgs on skype and that police forces suddenly stopped complaining about skype.

This is just bullshit to try and divert the attention elsewhere and it's same for all big tech companies. Sure MS might be a bit worse than apple and google but they all are guilty as hell of giving their users data to governments.

I have to say I take solace in the fact that one man can still make a difference.

The government has been building up these mass data collection programs at full throttle since 9/11 without anyone questioning them at all. Snowden forfeits his future so we can all see behind the curtain, and now the cats out of the bag. Our government & most large tech companies have been back pedaling ever since.....Almost every statement starts with "We Don't", because they know what they've been doing is way over the top & more than most INFORMED Americans will allow.

I have to say I take solace in the fact that one man can still make a difference.

The government has been building up these mass data collection programs at full throttle since 9/11 without anyone questioning them at all. Snowden forfeits his future so we can all see behind the curtain, and now the cats out of the bag. Our government & most large tech companies have been back pedaling ever since.....Almost every statement starts with "We Don't", because they know what they've been doing is way over the top & more than most INFORMED Americans will allow.

Thank you for your sacrifice Edward Snowden

Might want to wait with proclamations of change until something actually changes. Politicians and companies backpedaling on the PR side does not automatically imply that they are stopping what they are doing. Just that they know it looks ugly.

I have to say I take solace in the fact that one man can still make a difference.

The government has been building up these mass data collection programs at full throttle since 9/11 without anyone questioning them at all. Snowden forfeits his future so we can all see behind the curtain, and now the cats out of the bag. Our government & most large tech companies have been back pedaling ever since.....Almost every statement starts with "We Don't", because they know what they've been doing is way over the top & more than most INFORMED Americans will allow.

Thank you for your sacrifice Edward Snowden

Might want to wait with proclamations of change until something actually changes. Politicians and companies backpedaling on the PR side does not automatically imply that they are stopping what they are doing. Just that they know it looks ugly.

I totally agree, but the public knows something is going on. We know we need more transparency, were beginning to have the conversations. I know we are far from anything changing, but we are light years from where we were last month.

The public has known for years (decades?).This was not some kind of amazing reveal of activities that nobody knew was going on - it is simply more credible information about what everyone already knew, but couldn't prove, was happening.

There have been many articles published in many venues warning of massive expenditures for questionable projects for many years. Thomas Drake even had a 60-minutes episode and appeared on the daily show!

That the NSA shamelessly wastes massive amounts of resources, in an environment bereft of oversight leading to gross abuse, is not 'shockingly new'. It is old hat. Sadly, the general public responds with a resounding 'meh' and go back to watching another episode of 'Ow! My balls!'

Tabloidism around Snowden himself is the only thing that has caught anyone's attention (and I would wager that the vast majority of people have still never heard of him), whereafter the abuses of a government agency will be quickly forgotten.

I have to say I take solace in the fact that one man can still make a difference.

The government has been building up these mass data collection programs at full throttle since 9/11 without anyone questioning them at all. Snowden forfeits his future so we can all see behind the curtain, and now the cats out of the bag. Our government & most large tech companies have been back pedaling ever since.....Almost every statement starts with "We Don't", because they know what they've been doing is way over the top & more than most INFORMED Americans will allow.

Thank you for your sacrifice Edward Snowden

Might want to wait with proclamations of change until something actually changes. Politicians and companies backpedaling on the PR side does not automatically imply that they are stopping what they are doing. Just that they know it looks ugly.

If nothing else, Snowden's actions have given proof useable in court to sue the government for illegal wiretapping, something which has previously been impossible.